What Were You Thinking?!?!: Actors That Turned Down Roles For Movies That Made It Rain On Them Hoes!

Life is all about decisions. Sometimes those decisions are tough and we hope they work out for the best. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. In the case of these actors the decisions they made regarding their careers might have set them back in status and money. No one can totally predict if a film will do well or not, plenty of movies have been made with big name directors and huge budgets that no one ever went to see.
We found several examples of these actors/actresses and decided to bring you some of the most incredible.
Flip the script to see the list.

Can you imagine if Will Smith had played "Neo" in "The Matrix"?? Well, he can't either. Smith says he turned down the role because he just didn't see himself doing it justice.
“You know, 'The Matrix' is a difficult concept to pitch. In the pitch, I just didn’t see it. I watched Keanu’s performance – and very rarely do I say this – but I would have messed it up."

Vanessa L. Wlliams was scheduled to receive the the EPIC chopping down that Billy Bob Thornton gave Halle Berry in "Monsters Ball". In addition to Williams turning down the role, Angela Bassett also turned the role down saying:
"I couldn't do that because it's such a stereotype about black women and sexuality."

Both Matt Damon AND Jake Gyllenhaal had an opportunity to play Jake Sully in the blockbuster hit "Avatar"

Tom Cruise turned down the lead role in "Footloose" that went on to make Kevin Bacon a household name. Fortunately, Tom went on to do more movies and became a much bigger star than Bacon ever was.

Initially, LiLo was tapped to play Heather Graham's role in "The Hangover" but she decided to turn it down. Bad move Blow-han!

Angelina Jolie turned down an opportunity to be one of Charlie's Angels.

Leonardo DiCaprio said "No, thanks" to playing the infamous Dirk Diggler in "Boogie Nights"

Sharon Stone's iconic gold-digger character Ginger in Casino was supposed to be played by Madonna.

"X-Men" star Hugh Jackman was asked to play a version of James Bond at one point. However, he turned down the role because he was beginning to shoot "X-Men 2".

Wow, Jack Nicholson passed on an opportunity to play Michael Corleone in "The Godfather".
He later said of the choice:
"I knew 'The Godfather' was going to be a great film, but at that time I believed Indians should play roles written for Indians and Italians should do the same."
That's actually pretty noble of you Jack.

The role of Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino's cult classic "Pulp Fiction" was intended for Tarantino film-vet Michael Madsen. The role got John Travolta an Oscar nomination for Best Actor, meanwhile Madsen was on set for "A big waste of time" film called "Wyatt Earp".

Angelina Jolie's role in "Salt" was originally supposed to be a male, and not just any male Tom fawking Cruise!. The story is that Jolie read the script and liked it so much that the studio re-wrote the part for a woman.

Drew Barrymore was asked to play the role that Elizabeth "Jessie Spano" Berkley played in "Showgirls" but turned it down because she was uncomfortable with the nudity in the film.

Sandra Bullock's best year ever almost never happened, but she has Julia Roberts to thank that it did. Roberts turned down the role for no specific reason.